The Most Dangerous Place

[FC]

USA Today

February 15, 2007

Pg. 1

 

'The Most Dangerous Spot I Could Find'

 

U.S. sets up Baghdad outposts to put troops closer to Iraqi factions

 

By Jim Michaels, USA TODAY

 

BAGHDAD — Army Capt. Erik Peterson's newly established combat outpost is just blocks from a battle line separating Sunnis and Shiite militias, who fight in the streets almost every day.

 

Gunfire crackles through the night, and snipers occasionally fire into the fortified compound, which houses U.S. and Iraqi soldiers. Yet Peterson says it's the perfect place to start restoring order.

 

"I wanted the most dangerous spot I could find, so I planted my flag right here," Peterson says.

 

Peterson and his men from Company C of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment spend 24 hours a day in this outpost in Ghazaliyah, one of Baghdad's most violent neighborhoods. Sandbags are stacked in the windows, and the buildings are ringed by concrete walls. It's surrounded by vacant lots, garbage-strewn streets and abandoned homes.

 

Working side by side with Iraqi soldiers, the troops use the building as a base for traditional combat with insurgents and militias. They also go out on patrol and deal with everything from neighborhood squabbles to kerosene deliveries. "We've been the cops," says Peterson, 29. "We've been the local army. We've been the ambulance service."

 

Outposts such as this are a centerpiece of the new U.S. and Iraqi plan to improve security in Baghdad. About 100 American and 120 Iraqi soldiers are crammed into the outpost's buildings, sleeping on cots. The outpost functions like a local police station, intended to quell violence and improve daily contact with ordinary Iraqis.

 

"For us to reduce the level of violence it is going to require a greater interaction with the local people," says Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, the U.S. military's chief spokesman. He said 10 security outposts have been established in the city and there are plans to build two or three times as many.

 

The posts mark a major shift in U.S. strategy. Until recently, the U.S. priority had been to turn over responsibility for security to Iraqis so that American troops could begin to withdraw. Now, U.S. commanders acknowledge that Iraqi forces weren't prepared to deal with the growing sectarian violence and the insurgents they faced.

 

"The main point people will debate is whether I relied too much on Iraqi forces to carry the security load and too little on coalition forces," said Gen. George Casey, who was replaced last week as the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

 

Now, American forces will wade back into neighborhoods that had largely been turned over to Iraqi troops. Peterson's new outpost has reduced violence since it was established last month, U.S. officers say.

 

"It used to be impossible to drive down here without getting shot at," says 1st Lt. Sam Cartee, 25, a platoon leader from Martinsburg, W.Va. The frequency of those attacks has dropped on the main streets through the neighborhood, he says. City services are slowly returning.

 

Lt. Col. James Nickolas says there is less trash on the streets because the city's garbage collectors can now get into the neighborhood.

 

The Bush administration has pledged to send 21,500 extra troops to Iraq, most of whom will go to Baghdad. The Iraqi government has also pledged to move thousands of Iraqi soldiers into the capital. Many of the new troops will be moving into the outposts.

 

Gen. David Petraeus, who replaced Casey, supervised the creation of the military's new counterinsurgency manual, which draws on an extensive study of rebellions throughout history. The manual's major conclusion: "If military forces remain in their compounds, they lose touch with the people, appear to be running scared and cede the initiative to the insurgents."

 

A day after assuming command Saturday, Petraeus visited the combat outpost in Ghazaliyah.

 

The outpost places U.S. and Iraqi forces between warring factions. When gunfire echoes off the narrow streets surrounding the complex, as it does every day and night, it could come from any number of sources. "If it's that way it's probably Sunnis and Shiites," Peterson says, pointing north. "If it's that way it's probably more extreme Sunnis killing other Sunnis," he says, nodding in the other direction.

 

Before setting up the outpost, Peterson's unit was stationed at a massive U.S. base near the Baghdad airport. Soldiers patrolled into Ghazaliyah and then returned to their base at Camp Liberty, about 2 miles away. As in other neighborhoods in Baghdad, conditions in Ghazaliyah worsened. If there was trouble, it took his troops time to get ready and drive here, says Peterson, from Chesterton, Ind. Now, his troops can join with Iraqi forces and respond to trouble immediately.

 

Once predominately Sunni, Ghazaliyah is now about evenly split because Shiite militias have pushed Sunnis from their homes. Shiite militias grew in strength, and residents lost faith in the Iraqi government and its security forces, many of whom were seen as siding with Shiite militias.

 

"That's the missing link right now," says Lt. Col. Steven Miska, 38, deputy commander of a brigade in west Baghdad. "People have absolutely no trust in the government."

 

The plan is to win that confidence back by moving troops out of large bases, many of which are equipped with post exchanges, fast-food franchises and large dining halls that sometimes serve steak and lobster. "We're getting away from the FOB mentality," says Capt. Stacy Bare, a civil affairs officer in western Baghdad, referring to the massive forward operating bases that have sprung up in Iraq.

 

Peterson said when his unit was at the large base he felt as if "we're back there eating lobster and everything is going to hell," Peterson says. "Now we can fix things. We're where the action is."

 

They see and hear more. Peterson's company received an average of about three tips a day from residents when they were based at Camp Liberty. Today, about a dozen people walk in every day, and they receive telephone calls from twice as many. "I only knew 10% then of what I know now," he says. A radio operator in the compound's dingy command center interrupts Peterson to say a man is at the gate reporting that a child was kidnapped.

 

Outside, a small cluster of Iraqis gathers at the entrance of the compound. They are ushered into a room with a couch and a few chairs. Ordinary Iraqis would find it extremely difficult to get such one-on-one attention at the major American bases, which are ringed by massive blast walls and a maze of checkpoints. Some perimeter security at the bases is manned by private contractors whose gun-toting employees are from Latin America or Africa and speak little English or Arabic.

 

The Iraqis come to the Ghazaliyah outpost with a range of sometimes confusing grievances, including fights with their neighbors, reports of militia activities and allegations of Iraqi army abuses. Americans acknowledge it's sometimes difficult to sort through the complaints and tips, though Peterson claims about 75% are legitimate and his troops are getting better at figuring out the truth.

 

Peterson says his troops recently received a tip about an ax murder. It turned out two women had a dispute over a telephone line that went into one of their homes. The husbands got involved in the argument, but it didn't lead to violence, Peterson says. The Americans declined to step into the dispute.

 

Yusef Khalaf, an unemployed 56-year-old Sunni, came to the outpost to ask about his 18-year-old son, who he says was picked up by a joint U.S. and Iraqi patrol. Khalaf said he moved to Ghazaliyah after Shiites pushed him from his home in the nearby Shula neighborhood. Speaking through an interpreter, Khalaf tells platoon leader Cartee that Iraqi soldiers steal cellphones and money from him when they search his house.

 

Wearing a gray coat over a black dishdasha, or traditional robe, Khalaf asks Cartee to bar the Shiite-dominated Iraqi army from patrolling without U.S. forces accompanying them. "Don't let them come to our neighborhood alone," he implores Cartee.

 

Cartee gives him a phone number to reach Americans at the outpost and pledges to try to find out who detained his son.

 

American troops aren't loved, but they're sometimes seen as the only honest brokers in an increasingly polarized city, Peterson says. "A lot of people told me, 'We don't like you here, but at least you're fair,' " he says.

 

Later, another man came in and sat on the couch and launched into an animated monologue about militia activity near his home. Eventually, he went to a table with Cartee and drew a map to show the Americans where he would like them to block roads to prevent militias from moving through their streets. Cartee nodded and asked a few questions, but said he didn't believe it was necessary to block the roads.

 

Cartee says most of the people who come to see the Americans are Sunnis because they don't trust the Shiite-dominated army and police here. The Shiites with complaints approach the Iraqi side of the compound.

 

Ghazaliyah, a district of about 7,000 residents, has been cut off from most city services because of the violence and chaos in the area. Ambulances often can't get in to help sick people. Residents get an average of one hour of electricity per day.

 

The Americans have tried to fill the gap in services. Recently, U.S. and Iraqi soldiers escorted the first shipment of kerosene, used for heaters, into the neighborhood in about six months. Peterson said the kerosene delivery is more important in winning the confidence of locals than launching raids against militants.

 

American soldiers will be relying heavily on their Iraqi partners to pull their weight as they battle insurgents and militias on Baghdad's violent streets.

 

Driving into Ghazaliyah last week, a small U.S. convoy came under fire from insurgents in a nearby building. A bullet struck the door next to the driver, Sgt. Daniel Alonzo, 31, of El Paso, and rounds riddled the vehicle in front of him.

 

The vehicle's gunner, Spc. Joel Weiss, 23, of Salem, Ore., returned fire with his .50-caliber machine gun. Spent shells from the heavy machine gun flew from the chamber and rattled inside the armored Humvee.

 

The ambush occurred not far from Iraqi army checkpoints, leading a visibly angry and emotional Sgt. John Garcia, 33, who was in the passenger seat, to question whether the Iraqis were capable of securing the area. "This is why we can't trust the Iraqi army," says Garcia, of Houston, as the Humvee veered to the side of the road.

 

A short time later, about 12 insurgents attacked a small Iraqi army checkpoint in the neighborhood. The handful of Iraqi soldiers at the checkpoint withdrew to a nearby building and returned fire, Peterson says. He says they performed as well as any American troops would have in a similar situation. "They just didn't have sufficient combat power" to hold their ground, he says.

 

But Nickolas, Peterson's battalion commander, disagrees. He says some of the Iraqi forces in the area may be intimidated by the al-Qaeda fighters, prompting them to withdraw without putting up a stiff fight. "We have to get the Iraqi army to stand up to the threat," says Nickolas, 43.

 

The insurgents eventually melted away after engaging in another gunfight with U.S. and Iraqi forces for several hours through Ghazaliyah's streets. Nickolas says the fighters were in the southern part of the Ghazaliyah, which is mostly Sunni. The group also appeared to be well-trained, another indication they were al-Qaeda, he says.

 

"The terrorists now have big weapons," says Iraqi army Capt. Mohammed Hussein, 32, whose troops came under fire. The 120 Iraqi soldiers at the Ghazaliyah outpost have only two armored Humvees. Peterson's company has about 20.

 

Casey said last month that it could be summer or fall before the security plan starts showing results. In the past, a rush to turn the fight over to Iraqis and begin withdrawing Americans helped strengthen militias and increase violence. "It can't be just a surge for three to six months and leave," says Bare, the civil affairs officer.

 

Some American officers chafe at tight deadlines they say have more to do with U.S. politics than the complexities they face here. "I don't have a timeline imposed on me," says Nickolas, pointing out that insurgencies often take years to defeat. "I've got my mission."

 

Sitting outside the outpost in a battered plastic chair, Pfc. John Gunderson, 20, from Southwood, Mich., reflects on the complexities of counterinsurgency warfare. "It doesn't feel like a war," he says. "It's more like police work."

 

[RGRWJB]

Good post Tony!

[Horsefly]

That was a very good read! That mess over there sounds like the very reason the United Nations was formed.Aren't they a policing force? If those different sects have been fighting for a 1,000 years,how did they have time to build what little they have?Those people that have lived in those cities all their lives reckognize every stranger that comes into their neighborhood and could rat them out or fight them if they had the guts,and stop all this ambushing from rooftops and alleyways.If gangs from Mexico came across the Rio Grande and started setting up ambush sites in Austin or Dallas,they'd have to fight the people living in the neighborhood before they could fight an army.

What I'm trying to say is,I don't think the people of Iraq have the guts or balls to take charge of their own destiny.The UN has shown what it's made of,so why does it exist?We,us Americans,had our Civil War,got it over with and became the greatest country the world has ever known.Those ragheads are a different kind of humane than we,and the way we think is completely opposite of them.

In 1970,about a dozen ragheads came to Gainesville Tex and enrolled at NTJC.They all lived cramped in a couple little rooms and had one old beat up car to share.The first cold day of the winter,the car wouldn't start,so they all went down to the Gibsons Discount store and bought a battery.Everyone of them bought a battery for that one junker car.I was there and saw the whole thing,and to this day,I can't figure out what the reasoning for that was.I think that's what we're dealing with in Iraq.Jerry